Honored locally By Dena Harris Editor CUBA CITY—History was recounted as a group honored a Navy Cross recipient at Epione Pavilion on Aug. 20. A seemingly simple story for a small local newspaper led to a book-writing project and long-time friendship. The book chronicles the heroic actions James Stephenson took during World War II that earned him the Navy Cross. William Winders originally met Stephenson and his wife, Helen, in 1965 when they were living in New Diggings. Winders noticed the Navy Cross on a shelf in their home, but a discussion wasn’t held about it until many years later, after he started learning more about World War II. Winders visited Stephenson several times to interview him for a story for the Leader, a newspaper in Dubuque Winders owns. “The further I got into it, the more I knew I had to learn,” Winders said. “It was fairly obvious what he had done to become a distinguished member of the Marine Corp. I knew that after the first couple of sessions. As I dug into it a little bit more, it was a magnanimous battle at a pivotal point of the second World War and there was no way that it couldn’t have been done.” Winders spent approximately five years collecting information through interviews with Stephenson and outside research on the war, eventually publishing the book, “Sheltered by God’s Own Hands” to share the following story: Stephenson was born in January of 1923. He and his family lived in Hazel Green. Being a kid through the Great Depression solidified Stephenson’s discipline later in life. “He knew right from the beginning that there was no room for not doing the job,” Winders said. Stephenson married Helen when he was 17 years old and they will celebrate their 73rd anniversary in December. Stephenson joined the Marine Corp before he could be drafted to the Army. Helen didn’t want him to go. He did his basic training in San Diego, Calif., and Helen joined him there afterward, finding a job to be near him. Stephenson was in the Marine Corp tank corp where he learned to be a scout and learned about the tanks. “A lot of people wanted to have some protection around them,” Winders said. “Jim had that. He was a tank driver, but that wasn’t for him. He wanted to be out on the ground, out front.” His training took him to the island of Hawaii where he and the Fifth Division shipped out for the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945. The battle was only 36 days long, but the casualty list led all other divisions in the marine corp. Approximately 80,000 men in 150 vessels shipped out. When Stephenson’s division landed on the island, there was a lot of confusion and his group doesn’t end up where they’re supposed to be. When he walks through enemy fire and arrives where he’s supposed to meet the tanks, there are no tanks at the location. They held up there for two days while taking on enemy fire. Stephenson and one of his friends were discovered alive; information was transferred to headquarters and the men were told to stay put until they could be retrieved. “That wasn’t easy,” Winders said. “Of course, the enemy was firing down on them the whole time. On the second day they tried a counter attack. That didn’t work so well, either. The casualties were mounting by the hundreds.” On the third morning he received word that the tanks were coming. The tanks maneuvered around the mountain and Stephenson had to stand in front of a tank waving his arms to get the driver’s attention. The tank maneuvered around him, acknowledging that he was noticed, and Stephenson went around to the back of the tank to talk to the driver. Stephenson was asked if he knew of any mines ahead. He wasn’t sure, but knew fresh mines were buried in the tanks’ paths during the night. Lt. Dalton suggested someone walk in front of the tanks to scout for mines. He didn’t order anybody to perform the dangerous task, but Stephenson knew that someone had to do it and he volunteered. Stephenson concentrated on following the previous tank tracks, sweeping his bayonet across the top of the ground to feel for mine horns. When he came to deep sand and ravines, he had to stay on his hands and knees to search for mines, which was much slower. During this process he said he could hear explosions nearby and rifle fire hitting the tanks. On the way back, the lead tank got bogged down in a narrow ravine. None of the other tanks could move. Visibility got worse as the night set in. Stephenson said he could hear the Japanese not far away, but they didn’t fire at the tanks at that time. Stephenson got the tanks backed out one at a time and they got moving, following the same path they took in. “I have to say, I was very lucky,” Stephenson said. “I got the tanks to the target, had found no mines, had set none off, had not been shot, or worse, captured, and I got everyone out in one piece. Maybe as my wife has said many times in the years afterwards, I really was sheltered by God’s own hands.” Stephenson’s heroic actions took place on Thursday, Feb. 22, 1945. The official report from that day stated, “Tanks were released at about 17:30, partially re-armed and re-fueled. Heavy rainfall made tank operations extremely difficult throughout the day. In one case, in the late afternoon, the Third Platoon with flame tank attached found themselves in a pocket from which it was necessary to back out since the terrain would not allow them to turn around. At this time, the rainfall was so great the crew were unable to see where they were going. Corporal Stephenson volunteered to go into the pocket and guide them out. Under direct close range sniper fire, he guided each of the four tanks out into the clear.” The Colonel in charge told a Sargent to type up a citation for Stephenson, but didn’t tell him which one. The Sargent provided three citations: the first was for the Bronze Star, which was rejected; the second was for the Silver Star, which was also rejected; and the Navy Cross, which was signed and sent to the division headquarters. During the 36-day battle, the Marine Corp had 25,000 casualties. “Instead of keeping his head down and mixing in with the rest of the guys, he kept right on,” Winders said. After the battle, he went back to training in Hawaii. Following the two atomic bombs, Stephenson thought he would go home; however, that wasn’t the case. He went to the occupation troops in Japan for 3-4 months. He finally was able to call Helen on Dec. 26, 1946, to let her know he was on his way home. “I just hope there aren’t any more wars,” Stephenson said. “Sheltered by God’s Own Hand” was the first book Winders published. He said he is currently working on another lengthy story he intends to have published as a book about an Iowa man who was a prisoner of war. Winders was in the service until 1970 when he returned to Dubuque and was employed by “The Witness,” the official newspaper of the Arch Diocese of Dubuque. In 1980 he became the owner of the Dubuque Leader, a weekly labor newspaper, which he continues to publish today. The Navy Cross is the second-highest medal that can be awarded by the United States Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard. It is awarded to a person during the time of war who distinguishes himself in action by extraordinary heroism not justifying an award of the Medal of Honor. The action must take place under one of three circumstances: while engaged in action against an enemy of the United States, while engaged in military operations involving conflict with an opposing foreign force or while serving with friendly foreign forces engaged in an armed conflict in which the United States is not a belligerent party.
Posted on: Thu, 29 Aug 2013 16:19:38 +0000
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